Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (2015, St. Martin's Griffin; 528 pages) Rainbow Rowell is one of my favorite authors these days. She writes both for teens and adults. Her book Eleanor and Park is one of the most beautiful stories you'll read, but I won´t write a review about that book because you can find a great review of it at Bookshelf Envy -- our teen reviews blog -- written by wonderful Kaya. Rowell also wrote Fangirl, giving birth to two great characters named Cath and Levi. I mention Fangirl because Carry On has its origins in that book. In Fangirl, college freshman Cath is famous on the Internet for her Simon Snow fanfiction—written with her twin Wren—but far less capable at interacting with people IRL. Cath's sister has mostly grown away from fandom, but Cath can't let go. Now that they're going to college she is outside of her comfort zone. Simon Snow is definitely staying in her world. That's Fangirl. Then comes Carry On. Rowell describes it like this: "After I finished writing Fangirl, I kept thinking about Simon and Baz and the World of Mages … I wanted to write more about them, but I didn’t want to write the full series GTL-style. And I also didn’t want to write through Cath’s hands and brain. I wanted to explore what I would do with this world and these characters. So, even though I’m writing a book that was inspired by fictional fanfiction of a fictional series …… I think what I’m writing now is canon." What is Carry On? The publishers describe the book this way: ¨Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, a mystery and a melodrama. It has just as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story—but far, far more monsters." This is a book where fan fiction comes to life, it is a book conceived like a Russian doll, a nest: a book inside of another book inspired by a book outside her book! And it has a connection with Harry Potter! A total winner. It is funny, and clever and the plot evolves around a fun world. Rainbow Rowell has created a world of warm and complex characters, totally charming, opening to the readers the messiness of growing up into themselves. I recommend ALL of Rainbow Rowell's books. And I recommend you read this one as soon as you can get your hands on it, specially if you are a fan of Harry Potter. An excerpt about the book written by the author: "Simon Snow just wants to relax and savor his last year at the Watford School of Magicks, but no one will let him. His girlfriend broke up with him, his best friend is a pest, and his mentor keeps trying to hide him away in the mountains where maybe he’ll be safe. Simon can’t even enjoy the fact that his roommate and longtime nemesis is missing, because he can’t stop worrying about the evil git. Plus there are ghosts. And vampires. And actual evil things trying to shut Simon down. When you’re the most powerful magician the world has ever known, you never get to relax and savor anything." Find this title in our catalog: Carry On Recommended by: Maite
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Zeroes by Scott Westerfeld, Margo Lanagan, Deborah Biancotti (2015, Simon Pulse; 560 pages) X-Men meets Heroes when New York Times bestselling author Scott Westerfeld teams up with award-winning authors Margo Lanagan and Deborah Biancotti to create a sizzling new series filled with action and adventure. This young adult novel got to my hands as an advance reading copy, which I devoured in a few days. The novel is more than 500 pages, but it is very fast-paced and well-written, action-packed as well as humorous. The book was written by three authors, a fact that I usually don’t find very attractive, but they have been able to find a unique and homogenous voice in their communal writing: Scott Westerfeld is the author of the Leviathan series, the first book of which was the winner of the 2010 Locus Award for Best Young Adult Fiction. Margo Lanagan has been publishing stories for children, young adults, and adult readers for twenty-five years, and Deborah Biancotti has written two short story collections: Bad Power and A Book of Endings. The story follows six American teenagers, all born in the year 2000. They all have some kind of superpower. The powers are all different from one another. These teens have formed a team and call themselves Zeroes (a sarcastic spin on the word “heroes”), and they attempt missions to learn more about their powers. The difference between Zeroes and superheroes is that Zeroes don’t feel in any way like heroes; quite the contrary. Many of them suffer their superpowers, to the point of impacting their lives in very dramatic ways. The plot is told from six different points of view, each one of them through the eyes of one of the Zeroes. This book will appeal to fans of super hero fiction and those wanting to read something to forget about daily life chores. I think it will become a popular book/series. Find this title in our catalog: Zeroes Recommended by: Maite The Diviners by Libba Bray (2013, Little, Brown Books For Young Readers; 608 pages) This book is a paranormal historical novel that would be a perfect read to celebrate the spirit of Halloween and the Day of the Dead. The plot follows seventeen-year-old Evie O'Neill, a young girl in the 1920’s, as she helps her uncle Will - curator of the fictional "Museum of American Folklore, Superstition, and the Occult" - uncover the killer behind a mysterious series of murders after a spirit named Naughty John is awakened. The book has been nominated for an Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy as well as a Bram Stoker Award, and was one of the YALSA's picks for "best audiobook of 2012." Lair of Dreams, the sequel to The Diviners, was released in August of 2015 and is now available at the library! To read the author’s blog, click here Find this title in our catalog: The Diviners Recommended by: Maite |
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March 2018
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